Showing off... Finally getting the CNC mill dialed in

[Wicked_S10]

Well, I have had the CNC B'port Series 2 for almost a year now. I am finally getting it dialed in and turning out some pretty cool (I think) stuff with it. I just wanted to show off a bit. The first picture is of a night light I engraved for my girls. It is in a 4x6 picture frame I modified to include pink led side lighting.

http://www.rollmeover.com/bronco_fab/bridgeport/low_teddybear_2.jpg

The second is an alienware logo I engraved for a coworker. It is also in a modified 4x6 picture frame.

http://www.rollmeover.com/bronco_fab/bridgeport/low_alienware_1.jpg

Anyhow, over the last year I made a high speed spindle attachment for the mill specifically to do 3d engravings and use micro tooling. The first spindle attachment I made utilized a harbor freight pencil die grinder. It worked okay, but lacked the torque to take even moderate cuts, and in typical HF fashion, it began to shake itself to pieces after spending a few months in very intermittent, light duty service.

The next spindle, and the ones I used for these engravings is simply a rotozip attached to a custom bracket on the quill. It is a first generation rotozip that I had already destroyed, I rebuilt it with new higher quality bearings and it is very serviceable for a home shop machine. The Rzips come with bearings that are severely underrated for a 30K RPM spindle speed, and even higher quality replacements don't last long. I ran with the rebuild for probably 10 hours or so and I had to replace bearings again. If I ever start making any money off this cow, I am either going to machine a new high speed spindle, or drop the $1k or so on a good aftermarket HS spindle.

Here is a pic of the Rzip in place.

http://www.rollmeover.com/bronco_fab/bridgeport/bridgeport040.jpg

It's not very pretty, but it is getting the job done for now!

Later,
Jason

[gunsablazin]

nice

[300sniper]

a couple guys are using a router for a high speed spindle on tormach cnc machines. a tormach has the same size od on the spindle housing as a bridgeport. here are a couple brackets they made: http://cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70560 that router may be a bit tougher than the roto-zip. i think i am going to go this route with my tormach one of these days.


what cad and cam programs are you using?

[dopeassjackson]

nice project. what did you cut into to make thost night lights? plexi or somthing?

sounds like you need a heavier router.

[Wicked_S10]

I know a guy who runs Artcam, he let me do my designs on his machine and copy them to a flash drive for engraving. Artcam is uber expensive. I have been playing around with Vectric's Vcarve Aspire as well. The guys who started Vcarve originally spun off from Delcam. The software packages are very similar, but the Vectric stuff is about 1/10th the price of the Delcam's Artcam. I will probably bite the bullet and buy Vcarve before to long. It is one of the most powerful cad/cam packages I have seen for artistic/decorative money making stuff :)

As for the rotozip, it's biggest downfall is that it has a plastic case. It will never be a very precise spindle. For now, it is good enough. Bearings are bout $10 to change out, and I can handle that for now. The other big problem is underrated bearings. The rzip's, and most trim routers were never meant to run for long duration. Finish passes on a 3d engraving can easily run for hours to get results like those above, which in all honesty are not great finishes by any means. I would probably be looking at an 8-10 hour finish pass to get the thing mirror smooth and perfect. All in all, the side lit stuff shows better if it is not cut mirror smooth, so this is good for the application.

The bracket I made was out of necessity. The bracket held the air grinder, when that gave up the ghost, I butchered it to hold the rzip. It was prettier before :)

This is not the final design. My intention is to make a spindle cartridge that fits in the mill's 30 taper spindle, and holds some high end bearings and a miniature spindle that will be belt driven from the rotozip. I will flip the Rzip's mount so just the Rzip's collet protrudes and run a small timing pulley and timing belt to the spindle cartridge. This will take 90% of the load off the Rzips bearings, and will allow me to use high end but inexpensive skate bearings in a spindle cartridge. And, best of all, since the new cartridge will be in the factory spindle, I will not be sacrificing 6 inches of X work envelope. That is the plan anyhow...

Later,
Jason

[Wicked_S10]

Oh, the material used is just .25" acrylic. I buy the drops from my local hardware stores glass department. I give about $.50 a piece for them. Acrylic is a PITA to machine, polycarbonate machines much nicer, but I have not had any luck finding anyone who doesn't want to sell me a 4x8 sheet...

Later,
Jason